The Oxidation Behavior Evaluation of Sphalerite in HCl Media by Electrochemical Techniques

In this study, the oxidation behavior of sphalerite in a 0.1 M HCl environment was investigated using electrochemical techniques. The carbon paste electrode (CPE) was used to prepare the working electrode from Angouran sphalerite concentrate. According to the results of cyclic voltammetry (CV), it was determined that an oxidation peak was created in the range of 380 mV, which is caused by the dissolution of sphalerite by creating a passive layer with elemental sulfur composition or deficient metal sulfide. However, by increasing the potential to the ranges of 550 and 900 mV, the passive layer is no longer formed, and the chronoamperometric measurement has also proved this hypothesis. In the range above 380 mV, it seems that the active dissolution process coincides with the formation of zinc and sulfate cations, and this has caused an increase in the current density in the chronoamperometry measurement. Another result of this analysis is the increase of current density by about 2.5 times with the increase of potential from 550 to 900 mV in the range of active dissolution.